3 Things: Sy Montgomery, Jack Handey, and Hamsa

Hi friends,

Thanks for subscribing. Each week, I send out an email with something I think is great, something that made me laugh, and something interesting. If you feel like you haven't gotten these in a while, try checking to make sure this email is a trusted address so they aren't getting filtered to spam. Feel free to spread the word and share these with friends. Anyone can sign up for the mailing list online and/or check out the archive with all past emails here.

 Live shows

NEW YORK:

Wednesday, July 6 at 8 p.m. at 61 Local. I'm moderating an interesting new event for Idea Distillery. They're calling it an "UnDebate." The idea is to get two people with opposing views and rather than have them argue and try to convince each other, simply have an informative conversation where we learn about the differences in their beliefs but also where they overlap. I'm excited to see what happens. Link

Saturday, July 9 at 7:30 p.m at The Magnet Theater. I'm telling stories that improvisers will use as the basis for a series of scenes. The show is called The Armando Diaz Experience and it's always so much fun. Link 

Sunday, July 10 at 7:00 p.m at Under St Marks. My variety show You Get A Spoon! returns from a brief hiatus. Come see writers, musicians, and comedians share their work and then give out prizes to the audience. It's a budget version of Oprah's "My Favorite Things" show. You definitely won't get a free car but you might get a salad spinner. Link

You can also find my full up-to-date show schedule online here.

 This week's list

1 Thing I Think Is Great:

This week's list is Fourth of July-themed. So let's start out with a fascinating article to think about and discuss while you're at the beach. Out there, under the waves, is probably some species of octopus. An octopus is about as different from a human as possible. But scientists are increasingly learning that we may share similar levels of intelligence. Sy Montgomery shares her incredible look at the life of one octopus and also the cutting-edge science of how this alien species' understands the world. Her writing is excellent and her bio is even better. She's written a memoir about living with a pig, made a documentary about man-eating tigers, and worked with orphaned bear cubs. Deep Intellect
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

It wouldn't be a Fourth of July without fireworks. Here's Jack Handey on his favorite colorful explosions. The genius behind Deep Thoughts, Handey can make me laugh with so few words. My favorites are "The Hanged Cowboy" and "The Boom-R-Rang." My Favorite Fireworks by Jack Handey

 

1 Interesting Thing:

We've covered beaches and fireworks, so now let's move on to freedom, the value that we're celebrating this weekend. Hamsa is an incredible short film about a family of Syrians who have found refuge in Germany. They're such a loving, joyful family. While their story is full of tragedy, it's also full of hope and possibility. Watch this incredible woman tell her story. Freedom means more than baseball and hotdogs (although those are important parts too). Hamsa

Ok, thanks for reading! More details on shows and my full schedule online at www.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/

Have a great weekend,
Chris

3 Things: Paul Kirchner, Simone Giertz, and Shane Bauer

Hi friends,

Thanks for subscribing. Each week, I send out an email with something I think is great, something that made me laugh, and something interesting. If you feel like you haven't gotten these in a while, try checking to make sure this email is a trusted address so they aren't getting filtered to spam. Feel free to spread the word and share these with friends. Anyone can sign up for the mailing list online and/or check out the archive with all past emails here.

 Live shows

NEW YORK:
Wednesday, June 29 at 7:00 p.m at The Annoyance Theatre. I'm hosting The Sensible Show and we've got Sasheer Zamata from SNL, Roy Wood, Jr. from The Daily Show, Jo Firestone, Alingon Mitra, Michelle Buteau, and Emma Willmann. Truly unbelievable how good this lineup is.  Link 

Sunday, July 10 at 7:00 p.m at Under St Marks. My variety show You Get A Spoon! returns from a brief hiatus. Come see writers, musicians, and comedians share their work and then give out prizes to the audience. It's a budget version of Oprah's "My Favorite Things" show. You definitely won't get a free car but you might get a salad spinner. Link

You can also find my full up-to-date show schedule online here.

 This week's list

1 Thing I Think Is Great:

The mark of a well-written joke is how quickly you get to the punchline. Paul Kirchner's comic strip The Bus wastes no time at all. Kirchner isn't just going for laughs though. He's using his art to transform the mundane into the extraordinary. Every strip of The Bus starts with a man waiting for a bus, but then "turns a completely conventional situation into a world where it is impossible to refer to the usual categories of logic, scale, and dimension." The fun of Kirchner's work is how many new ways he finds to take the same premise and still make the punchline surprising. Here's a collection of some of his best work: Paul Kirchner's The Bus (h/t Bianca Giaever)  
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

For as much as I love a good story or a perfectly crafted joke, I can't deny that I laugh the hardest at things going wrong. Simone Giertz is consistently the best at the slapstick of disaster. She creates elaborate robots that are terrible at their jobs. They slap her in the face, spill milk everywhere, and then self-destruct in the most spectacular ways. I can't watch her videos without laughing. One of my favorites is her Applause Machine but you can see all of her crazy robots on her YouTube channel.

 

1 Interesting Thing:

Shane Bauer just published an amazing investigative look at the world inside America's private prisons. He worked undercover as a guard for four months and documented how he was trained, what he saw, and what the inmates and guards told him. It's one of the most incredible pieces I've ever read. It absolutely should be turned into a movie (and also a Supreme Court case against the private prison industry). This story would be worth reading no matter who wrote it, but the fact that the journalist is Shane Bauer, an American who famously spent two years in Iranian prison, adds another layer of depth. My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard

Ok, thanks for reading! More details on shows and my full schedule online at www.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/

Have a great weekend,
Chris

3 Things: Hot Tamale Louie, Richie Moriarty, and South Pole Rescue

Hi friends,

Thanks for subscribing. Each week, I send out an email with something I think is great, something that made me laugh, and something interesting. If you feel like you haven't gotten these in a while, try checking to make sure this email is a trusted address so they aren't getting filtered to spam. Feel free to spread the word and share these with friends. Anyone can sign up for the mailing list online and/or check out the archive with all past emails here.

 Live shows

BOSTON:
Thursday, June 23 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. at The Davis Square Theatre. You're the Expert records live with Saturday Night Live's Sasheer Zamata, writer/actor Obehi Janice, and Ken Reid (TV Guidance Counselor). Link

NEW YORK:
Wednesday, June 29 at 7:00 p.m at The Annoyance Theatre. I'm hosting The Sensible Show and the lineup is insane. Roy Wood, Jr. from The Daily Show, Jo Firestone, Alingon Mitra, Michelle Buteau, and Emma Willmann are all going to be performing.  Link 

You can also find my full up-to-date show schedule online here.

 This week's list

1 Thing I Think Is Great:

Hot Tamale Louie was a local legend in Sheridan, Wyoming. "He had been selling tamales in Sheridan since Buffalo Bill rode in the town parade, sold them when President Taft came to visit, was still selling them when the Russians sent Sputnik into space and the British sent the Beatles to America." Then, one day, Hot Tamale Louie was killed. Kathryn Schulz tells the incredible story of the life and death of Zarif Khan (a.k.a. Hot Tamale Louie).Citizen Khan
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:

Richie Moriarty is one of the very best improvisers and actors I know. He had me crying tears of laughter in Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and I'm blown away every time I see him perform live. But I think this may be his best work yet. Richie sings the opening number to Hamilton while nailing 14 different celebrity impressions. I can't decide whether my favorite is Christopher Walken or his mom. (There's a phrase I never expected to say.) Hamilton Impressions

 

1 Interesting Thing:

As you read this, two small planes are flying through pitch darkness and freezing cold in a rescue mission to the South Pole. About 50 people spend each winter at the Amundsen-Scott Research Station each year. But once Antarctic winter sets in, the sun doesn't rise, temperatures hover around minus-76 degrees Fahrenheit, and everyone there is stuck. According to a former resident, it's a place "that's harder to get to than the International Space Station... we know we're on our own." Despite that, two heroic pilots in in tiny, winter-proof bush planes are on their way to try and provide an emergency medical evacuation. Read all about it in this incredible Washington Post article by Sarah Kaplan: A rare, risky mission is underway to rescue sick scientists from the South Pole.

Ok, thanks for reading! More details on shows and my full schedule online at www.chrisduffycomedy.com/calendar/

Have a great weekend,
Chris